Watch Out

• Posted by Darling
• Category: Articles
• 21 comments

 

Hello. I'm here to tell you about something fun that you might like. About a week ago we got an email from the lovelies at Tokyoflash.com, the company that are all about timepieces that look like they have arrived from the future. They said do you fancy a watch, and in return you can tell people what it’s like. I said fo sho, so here is what it's like.

It has to be said, they actually asked Mr Weebl to review it, and he picked the amazing looking Shinshoku watch, which really does look like it might summon people from another world if you pressed the buttons in the right way. The thing with Mr Weebl is that he has deceptively thick man wrists, so for some reason when he tried it on it looked unusually small. We tried adjusting it, which, by the way, is incredibly easy thanks to a little slider on the strap, but it just didn't look right. We really are putting this down to the Wobbler's unfeasibly hairy bonobo wrists, and not an issue with the design. On my smaller girlish wrists it looked like a futuristic space bangle that Buck Rogers would be proud of.

I can hear lots of sighing and fidgeting. Yes, fair enough, watches have been designed up the wazoo, with everything from weird squares to space invader watches, but what makes these watches different is that they don't have numbers on them. Depending on the model, most of them have little flashing leds which show the hours and minutes. It does take a bit of getting used to, but in fairness, it looks so good that you will persevere, and if you don't get it it doesn't matter. You've got a clock on your phone, use that.

I know we got ours for frees, and it can sometimes affect your appreciation if you don’t pay, but considering how extortionate most watches with really solid design ideals are, these are very reasonable. After all, at the risk of sounding like an old dodderer, a watch is a solid investment you're going to keep for years, so it's a cost per wear deal you have to work out, and at ¥14,900 (roughly 70 quid), these are a great investment. Some are even cheaper than that, which is a total bargain. I'm a watch addict, I've got about twenty, and this has gone straight to the top of the pile. It's not like anything I've ever seen before, and has that typically Japanese feel of being something that once you've seen you just can't be without. I think my next acquisition will be the Pimpin Ain't Easy or the Active Reactor. Maybe we might be able to find one chunky enough for Mr Weebl's gargantu-wrists.